BASILIUS BESLER

Basilius Besler (1561-1629). Hortus Eystettensis.[Eichstatt], 1640. In the early seventeenth century the Prince-Bishop of Eichstatt, Germany, created a splendid garden, the first to contain all the shrubs and flowering plants known at that time. The garden included the latest imports from the Orient and America.When the garden was complete, the Bishop commissioned a monumental picture book of the plants - the Hortus Eystettensis (Garden of Eichstatt), published by the botanist-apothecary Basilius Besler, who had helped to develop the garden.The book, printed from elaborately prepared copper engravings in a very large format, contains 367 plates beautifully illustrating more than 1,000 species. Even in black and white, the Hortus Eystettensis was one of the greatest botanical picture books ever created. A very few copies were printed on special paper and individually hand-coloured by teams of illuminators.